Mint White Chocolate Mousse Cake

It’s my CEO’s birthday tomorrow, and he requested pavlova, mousse, or tiramisu. I’m actually in a tiramisu course next week, so of course he is out of the office. I decided to go with this chocolate mousse joconde cake from Sprinklebakes; I already made pavlova last year, and any tiramisu I make would be disappointing compared to what I make next week.

I tried to follow the recipe from sprinklebakes, but my mousse didn’t turn out as described. I also am dumb and forgot the whipped cream, so I used an approximate amount from whatever tubs I could buy at 7/11. That said, everything turned out really well so I can’t complain too much. The mint was subtle but present, and the texture was generally mousse-like.

JOCONDE SPONGE CAKE

120 g almond flour

¾ cup icing sugar, sifted

55 g cake flour, sifted

50 g cocoa powder, sifted

4 whole eggs

1 egg yolk

4 egg whites

50 g granulated sugar

28 g unsalted butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 450 F and line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper.

Mix together the almond flour, icing sugar, cake flour, cocoa powder, whole eggs, and yolk in a stand mixer until well combined.

In a clean bowl, use a hand mixer to whip the egg whites until foamy. Gradually add in sugar until meringue becomes white and shiny.

Fold the meringue into the flour mixture.

Fold the melted butter into the batter.

Bake for ~7 minutes or until a toothpick in the centre comes out clean.

Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes and remove from pan.

MOUSSE

7 g gelatin powder

30 g water

100 g granulated sugar

120 g hot milk

3 egg yolks

240 g white chocolate (I used Callebaut)

1 tsp. mint extract

green food colouring

750 mL whipped cream

DIRECTIONS

Put water and gelatin in a medium sized saucepan and let stand for a minute.

Whisk in the sugar and hot milk.

Pour a little bit of the milk mixture into the eggs to temper them, and pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan.

Mix constantly on medium heat for 7- 10 minutes or until thick*

Mix in the chocolate until it is smooth with an even colour.

When the mixture has cooled, mix in the food colouring and mint extract.

Fold in the whipped cream until well blended.

ASSEMBLY

Cut 6″ round circles from the cake using pastry rings.

Cut long strips from the cake to line the edges of the pastry rings.

When the mousse is cooled and thick, pour it into the pans and freeze for a few hours.